A Writer's Outlook on the Craft of Writing, Getting Published, and the Big One... Life.

Monday, December 13, 2010

Self-Publishing? You Don't Have to Do It Alone

If you’re thinking about self-publishing, there’s something you should know. You don’t have to do everything yourself. Self-publishing companies likeBookLocker can help make your book available to readers. Not only will they sell your book through their website, but they’ll make it available to many online and most brick and mortar bookstores. Online stores include Amazon.com, BarnesandNoble.com, booksamillion.com, chapters.ca and several others. With this system, you’ll still have to market your book, but you won’t have to deal with the sales end of things.

Angela and Richard Hoy, the owners of BookLocker, have a reputation to uphold. They know their readers will only return for more books if BookLocker continues to offer a consistent writing standard. That’s why they won’t publish any old book. They review the manuscript and if it’s not up to snuff, they reject the story.

BookLocker has been in business since 1999 and has seen POD (print on demand) and ebook authors receive traditional publishing contracts as a result of their self-published books. If you’d like to read articles on how these authors landed their traditional publishing contracts, check out this link on self-publishing case studies.

Maybe you’re not planning on going the self-publishing route, but if you’re considering it, I suggest you check out POD companies like BookLocker.

Did you know self-publishing companies were an option? Were you aware their services include more than simply printing books?

4 comments:

You have to really research any self-pubbing company thoroughly though because some are vanity presses that are just looking to make their money charging you fees. When they say they will help you "promote" sometimes that often means they are going to take a pretty decent percentage of your royalties and often it's not true promotion--just making it available to certain websites is not promotion.

So, if you self-publish a book--i.e. totally pay for the cost of the books being printed and such then only get 15% royalty on copies sold, that's not a good deal for the author and is not truly self-publishing. I don't know anything about this company per se, so I'm just speaking in general, but it's something for authors to be aware of when they're researching this option.

i think self-publishing gets a bad rap all too often. maybe it's because of the vanity publishers out there, like Roni mentioned.

but i like to believe that self-publishing is a very viable route. and i don't think it necessarily means a person is a bad writer. i think maybe they just didn't get "lucky". publishing is a hard business and so much of it has to do with timing.

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About Me

Lynnette Labelle is a freelance editor with over fifteen years of experience. She’s the owner of Labelle’s Writing on the Wall, an editing and coaching service for writers. Her clients range from new writers to New York Times and USA Today best-selling authors like Roni Loren, Rebecca Hamilton, and Cristin Harber. Lynnette works with writers seeking traditional publishing and indie authors. She specializes in developmental and line editing combos as well as manuscript evaluations. She helps writers create hooky query letters and strong synopses, and teaches several writing classes.
If you're looking for a freelance editor, check out her website: www.labelleseditorialservices.com